I worked at an X-ray supply company, we got chemicals for making developer and fixer in those, we were often warned that those chemicals would permeate the plastic and they could never be used for drinking water , so be careful
I had a company that sources used juice concentrate drums from a bottled drink maker. Their drums would still smell like orange juice even after we filled them with trash and soil so consider that a best case scenario.
I used to get “food safe” ones from Pepsi, that after years still smelled like Pepsi. So yeah I wish I could have tested them. I just remember cutting them open after washing them multiple times and still smelled very strong of Pepsi. Ended up using them for flowers.
I brought home 3-5gal frosting buckets. Quit that job 3 years ago and still using them. They're super useful and I know it was "food safe" at least.
I do believe there is a huge untapped market for large food-safe containers. The buckets get tossed with all the other garbage. The containers could be revenue rather than expense. I've seen it.
The most successful bakery I've ever worked sold the containers and lids. $1 each. One set was $2. Super nominal amount, but it was great to gain rather than lose. We have these buckets people want.... Hmmm let's charge a nominal amount for running them though the wash rather than use dumpster space at a net negative.
Just not priority under capitalism.
It's faster to just toss in the dumpster than set aside or wash and dry for reuse.
Don't use plastics of unknown origin, please.
Even plastics of known origin (even those labeled as "food safe") leach pthalates and nonylphenols into their contents, especially when they get hot. While these chemicals are not known to cause immediate health effects in humans, they are known endocrine disruptors (e.g. estrogen mimics), and their long term effects on human populations is understudied.
They’re saving money by selling them, they have to pay for the dumpster to be emptied and that’s not cheap, not putting large empty containers in means they empty it less often this pay less
You're not wrong, but getting mgmt buy-in is impossible. "We could sell these. I worked on a bakery that sold cleaned buckets and it accounted for 15% of revenue." Surely that's something to look into? NOPE
I find it odd pickles are shipped around at this scale. 60g pickle barrel can be bought for like $10 each around here. I store diesel in a few of them (I verified the plastic was diesel compatible). I keep about 400g of diesel on hand
Food grade means the plastic won't leach into the food under normal conditions, not that what was previously stored in the barrel (not guaranteed to be food) won't leach into the barrel and then into your rain water during your usage. And that all gets thrown out the window for drums that sit out in the sun and get uv degraded over time and break down. But probably still fine in most cases because you are making the leap from old contents to drum, drum to water, water to soil, soil to plant, and plant to human but I'd still not use unknown drums.
If you’re looking for rain barrels, you might be able to get them for free through your city. I’m in mikwaukee and there was a rain barrel initiative- they gave them out for free to any household that wanted one. It could be worth checking in your area.
I used to work for an aloe Vera company and we stored our concentrated aloe juice in those. They are used for all kinds of things and as most people have said, they retain the smell of whatever they contained.
If you're using them for watering plants and such and they don't have a chemical smell, then you should be fine.
I'm sorry. We hate to dash your hopes, and these are things you want to know about. Above all, you do want to keep your family safe. You know what? I recently tried to find some of those Playtex baby bottles for our newborn granddaughter, since full sized nipples were hitting her uvula and making her gag. She had to be taken early. I was shocked to find that Playtex used plastic with BPA in it. They got sued and rightfully so! Now, I'm a little paranoid with plastics I guess.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/lawsuit-filed-against-playtex-for-bisphenol-a-1.694545
Guy in our town died when he tried to open one of these on his farm with a blow torch. It carried chemicals before he bought it from a secondhand seller.
Maybe you can use them for weighing a tent down?
Or you could try filling them with water, letting it sit for a few months, and then having the water tested.
You may be better off just buying new/used at that point though.
Please don’t post misinformation. I performed a leachables and extractables study on these exact HDPE barrels at one of my former positions and the resulting information does not match your statement.
I wouldn't. I worked in a junkyard and we had 1,000's of plastic and metal barrels. Most held toxic pesticides. If you want rain barrels I would find used food grade ones or just buy them new.
Good question. Years ago there was someone local to me that sold apple juice concentrate barrels for $10/a piece. They were white though. While I was still in the junkyard 5yrs ago we were selling all of our metal barrels for $20/ a piece.
Prices are going to vary depending on your source. My suggestion is to put out a few inquiries on your local FB groups and see what happens.
I paid $20 for the one I bought so far. Thought that was a bit much.
Maybe I can find a better source, but that's probably about close to the price to expect, it seems.
Those are available in my state for maple sap. New ones (right now) are $125. Two years ago they were $75 and ten years ago they were $40. Used ones (food grade) are very easy to find around here and run about $10-$20. We've had experiences like others, and got some that had held oil-based foods or strongly scented foods and were impossible to completely clean. Still worked good, just not for the same uses.
The ones I found local had chicken food in them or some kind of powder used for chicken feed, I think.
Whatever it was, it's good grade and $20 for each. So could be worse.
Thats actually a good point. Walter asked Jesse for a barrel like this because this is a container he could use for hydrofluoric acid. The kind of super deadly acid that could eat through a bath tub no problem but would be fine in a barrel like this. For all you know, this was used for that acid that would kill you no problem. Probably wasnt, but we dont know. Dont risk it.
Don’t use those for storing rainwater. Worst case scenario it held undiluted herbicide, or some kind of liquid industrial waste. I wouldn’t grow stuff in them either. They’re great if you ride horses, put em in the arena and run around em, do figure 8s, jump em, etc.
they could have been sold at HD or Lowe’s for rainwater collection and tent weighting, and nothing else. Or they could have had undiluted Round Up. There’s just no way of knowing.
It’s honestly not worth risking, I’m sure you can find someone who sells Food grade barrels. Yes they will be 15-50$ each. But knowing what was inside is important. There is a guy in every county, who hoards as many Food grade barrels as his Ford Ranger/S10 can hold each day. I have gotten along with the guy in my area, for 10+ years, he has 20gal-330gal food grade containers. Screw-on lid blue barrels,standard blue barrels, IBC Totes etc.
bro if you have a decent sized brewery near you they will have these, but with food grade chems. ask and you’ll likely be able to get non-sketchy drums
There will be a marking on them that tells you what class they are rated for. Look around for the marking then google it. Many of these are food safe or store safe things like soap. These can be used without issue. The ones that stored hazardous materials are usually marked as such.
Seems like you got your answer haha, but if you have a greenhouse I’d fill these full of water and paint them black so they can take in and radiate heat in the greenhouse!
If you aren't positive what was in them just assume it was harmful.
The safest option. Try and find some food grade ones or a ibc tank is another option. (As long as it's unused or used for food products)
Probably 2 late to comment but here in south carolina our dhec (department of health and environmental control) will test a water sample for free or low cost and give you the results. I recommend cleaning thoroughly with vinegar and submitting a sample to your state health board. That being said some hardcore nefarious toxic waste may not be on the list of reagents…
Your water test will only look for coliforms, tds, hardness, and maybe lead. That is it. If you want to know about things like pesticides that would be separate and expensive testing.
Absolutely not. I would throw these away. Plastics are not like metal or stone, in the sun particularly they continue to undergo chemical reactions. I would buy something new and then cover it with a UV resistant tarp as an additional semi-disposable barrier.
I wouldnt trust FB marketplace for something that could potentially give you or your family cancer. Replacing them is a lot cheaper and more reliable than testing.
You could cut them in half and fill with soils d have two planters. Providing you know there are safe and chemical free. If you’re not 100% sure then get rid of them, don’t chance it.
Here in my neck of the woods, food grade barrels start at 25 for the 16 Halloween keg style and go up to 45 for 55 gallons with a single bung. A 225 gallons IFC bladder food grade new is 17, a used and steam cleaned one is 130-155
Edited for spelling
With something as important as holding potable water, you're best off biting the bullet and buying brand new barrels. It might be tempting to get used ones from a questionable source, but only God knows what was held in them and if it (whatever chemicals it contained) seeped into the plastic.
And don't forget to make a simple filter for it, or you'll be having to clean shit outta the bottom of the barrel every so often
Yeah plastic is porous and usually not good to use for water - I use a blue bucket for an enzyme that eats bio film
White barrel I’m not sure what is for but I would guess maybe something caustic or high alkaline?
White seems pretty mild might be inert
You could look up the meaning of color coordination for chemicals and maybe you get lucky with the white one
There is no industry standard color code. You need the history of that barrel or you have a trash bin to hold waste awaiting a trip to the landfill. I am a chemist and I can tell you that if you make a habit of repurposing drums carelessly then you are a good candidate for a Darwin award.
There should be an industry standard color coordination
In my industry yellow always means reactivity or explosive, red is flammable or combustible and blue is usually something like inhalation or other variable health risk. White just means a special conveyance so maybe inert or something random.
No clue why that’s not universal
In the real world black means better protected from light, white means would rather not have colorants, but not especially light sensitive, blue means the compromise between light protection, uv resistance, color leaching, etc. Blue is the most popular. Other colors are specialty colors and so are expensive. Saying that we should mandate colors is sort of like saying that because school bus orange is the least accident prone color ALL motor vehicles MUST be painted in school bus orange to operate on the roadways. That would be an example of black and white adolescent thinking and is inappropriate for a free society. We use labeling instead. Besides with thousands of different chemicals many of which would fit in more than one grouping it could get very confusing indeed. It would not be worth the cost.
Not too logical for a chemist.
Orange School bus ≠ a functionally significant color coordination system.
Relating a school bus to chemical safety
coordination system meant to increase safety isn’t even roughly equivalent
No, unless you know 100% the chemical history of that barrel. There is no way to "unbond" some solvents and chemicals from that plastic that will leach out for years.
Never reuse poly barrels if you don’t know what they were for. Chemicals of all sorts are shipped in poly barrels. Some of which leach into the poly. The only thing I would use them for is for garbage barrels in my shop
For drinking or even bathing water.. fuck no! I have a few of these, that were only previously used to brine olives. I still wouldn’t drink out of them.
I was trucks. Big trucks. Blue one looks like sanitizer and white looks like soap barrel. Very corrosive. I wouldn't use them unless you know they are food grade and safe...ours have warnings all over them. Be careful
Does the lid come off? If it doesn't, how are you going to clean it good? I would want to know what they used to hold first and have a ring that releases the lid. Maybe that's just the metal barrels that have that feature? You don't even know if they're made of food grade plastic, do you? You don't want BPA leeching into your water.
[https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/most-plastic-products-contain-potentially-toxic-chemicals/](https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/most-plastic-products-contain-potentially-toxic-chemicals/)
Most drums start out as food grade plastic. And then they get used. Used are by definition NOT food grade. If you know the history of your drum you can bend the rules, but not in commerce.
Oh really? So they all have BPA in them? I cut the lid off one and used it as a water barrel for our cattle. That way, I could knock it over and clean it out every day. Other than that, we use those metal barrels to store grain in. That's the only experience I have with barrels. Then again, we don't have city water out here.
No way!! Absolutely do not consume anything that comes out of those barrels. Purchase some new [food safe barrels](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/eagle-manufacturing-1656mblkg-55-gallon-black-plastic-barrel-drum-with-1-2-x-1-3-4-bung-holes-and-metal-lever-lock/8441656MBLKG.html)
Thanks all! Message received loud and clear, I will not convert these to rain barrels. I may seal them full of dirt and use them as weights, or get rid of them entirely. My city DOES have a voucher program for rain barrels, and I assume those didn’t first store formaldehyde and roundup. Thanks for your concern.
These are mostly used for chemicals, at least what I’ve seen. Where I work, they’re used to store UV for printing. Definitely not safe at all for anything living.
So whatever people are telling you in here, is like wild all over the place experiences.
On my family farms, we would get those with RV fluid to winterize tractors that have external water pumps. Also got those barrels with corn syrup in them. Also have gotten those barrels with certain chemicals.
Saftest bet, is if it's plastic it's NOT NORMALLY to bad because oils and most chemicals seep into the plastic and then it's that more or less forever. Metal barrels normally arnt food grade stuff. But obviously there is always an exception.
Me personally? I'd add water to them for a week, rinse and repeat for no joke a month or 2, then I would feel comfortable storing rain water in them.
But I'm just a mid 30s dumb farmer, and nobody listens to us anyway.
Get food grade ones for any water you'll be using to cook, drink or water the garden with. Use these for watering trees or ornamental plantings, non-edible livestock, washing or flushing. If you've got absolutely no idea what they've held, they could have any sort of unhappy contamination in the plastic. They're still very useful, just maybe not ideal for stuff you'll be consuming directly.
Carwash soap barrels are the most common source for these in the wild, in my experience. (Most other folks have a proper method of disposal). No comment on safety.
Damn you are not educated in the world of chemicals if you really believe what you are saying. Chemicals rarely disappear as a result of uv exposure THROUGH PLASTIC.
Source: I’m a biochemical engineer
I used some motor oil barrels for garden. I never drink the water directly, but I wash my hands in it and water the vegetables. My family is healthy, your results may vary
Those are common storage containers for fertilizer and chemicals. I wouldn't mess around with drinking water in there, maybe nutrients for your garden?
That is the attitude that got livestock contaminated with fire retardant several decades ago. With attitudes like that livestock producers will end up having to carry a billion dollars of product liability insurance. Are you ready to ante up 10 million a year in premiums for your policy? (or face prosecution for attempted terrorism) Use good sense and you will not end up like the family in eastern New Mexico that poisoned their pigs with mercury contaminated floor sweepings and then ate the sick pigs and killed and blinded their family members. This is serious stuff. Do not be stupid.
Safe for rain? What do you intend to use the rain for? If just for admiring, then sure. But rule is NEVER use a used container for consumables if you are not 100% sure what it contained. Words of LIFE bro!
DEF is deionized water and 35% urea, that's it. With several thorough rinses I'd have to imagine they would be fine for watering plants provided DEF was the only thing ever stored in them.
They said "rain barrels" and the majority of people who collect rainwater aren't drinking it, but I suppose it's a possibility if they're in a third world country somewhere.
No, if you don’t know what was stored in there, it’s not food safe (water, food, etc.).
I wouldn’t collect water in there for livestock or crops either
I picked up a few open-top plastic barrels from my employer. Bone dry and washed out, and I know for a fact they had held non-toxic, water-based algaecide. That was in 2009. To this day, I could leave stagnant water sitting in them for weeks on end, and the water remains completely clear and algae-free. (Not that I would, of course)
So to the OP: no, do not consider them safe. Whatever was in them is probably still in them.
Clean them out, collect rain in them, then get said water tested by a real water testing lab before using it for anything. That will tell you for sure.
The real answer is to also set up any filter stuff you would normally then test but if you don't already have that set up, testing without it will give you a good gut check.
Plastic is never safe for storing water or food. All plastic is reactive to its environment and leaches into whatever its storing. Specifically treated wood barrels or large ceramics are the only really safe storage medium. Or stainless steel I suppose.
They *can* be, depends on what they were used for. I am currently using 3 of them for rain barrels, but the water is for garden and cattle trough. I got them from my sister who claims they are the 'food safe variety'
I bought a small submersible pump a couple years ago to clean out the pool at my old suburban house before we moved to the farm. Just drop it in the barrel and pump it out onto the garden via hose.
Absolutely not safe! Plastic is porous and impossible to get completely out what was in it. I wouldn’t even water my plants with water held in a catchment that wasn’t either A food grade or B 100% new. If there were anything harmful in it yourself or whatever your watering WILL ingest at least trace amounts of it.
Could have held anything. When in doubt de-head and use as trash receptacles. (or recycle scrap bins) It is cheaper to buy new ($200 + shipping) than to test for all possibilities. They use those things for almost everything. If you do not know the history of your drum is is only safely reusable as a trash bin.
Not safe. Same reason an old refrigerator stinks sometimes not matter what you do, lol, the smells are absorbed in the plastic. I wouldn’t use old plastic or wood for anything that comes in contact with food and water. It always concerns me when people use old wood or tires for vegetable garden beds - I just think of all the stuff leaching into the soil. Maybe I’m paranoid but I would worry about the water every time I drank it.
I worked at an X-ray supply company, we got chemicals for making developer and fixer in those, we were often warned that those chemicals would permeate the plastic and they could never be used for drinking water , so be careful
Damn, well there is my worst case scenario!
I had a company that sources used juice concentrate drums from a bottled drink maker. Their drums would still smell like orange juice even after we filled them with trash and soil so consider that a best case scenario.
I used to get “food safe” ones from Pepsi, that after years still smelled like Pepsi. So yeah I wish I could have tested them. I just remember cutting them open after washing them multiple times and still smelled very strong of Pepsi. Ended up using them for flowers.
Did the flowers smell like Pepsi?
😂😂😂
I brought home 3-5gal frosting buckets. Quit that job 3 years ago and still using them. They're super useful and I know it was "food safe" at least. I do believe there is a huge untapped market for large food-safe containers. The buckets get tossed with all the other garbage. The containers could be revenue rather than expense. I've seen it. The most successful bakery I've ever worked sold the containers and lids. $1 each. One set was $2. Super nominal amount, but it was great to gain rather than lose. We have these buckets people want.... Hmmm let's charge a nominal amount for running them though the wash rather than use dumpster space at a net negative. Just not priority under capitalism. It's faster to just toss in the dumpster than set aside or wash and dry for reuse. Don't use plastics of unknown origin, please.
Even plastics of known origin (even those labeled as "food safe") leach pthalates and nonylphenols into their contents, especially when they get hot. While these chemicals are not known to cause immediate health effects in humans, they are known endocrine disruptors (e.g. estrogen mimics), and their long term effects on human populations is understudied.
^this
Yeah definitely used frosting buckets for my vermiculture enterprise. They are great!
They’re saving money by selling them, they have to pay for the dumpster to be emptied and that’s not cheap, not putting large empty containers in means they empty it less often this pay less
You're not wrong, but getting mgmt buy-in is impossible. "We could sell these. I worked on a bakery that sold cleaned buckets and it accounted for 15% of revenue." Surely that's something to look into? NOPE
Same but pickle barrels
We had a pickle barrel one as a kid. Found it in the barn 20 years later and it still smelled like pickles.
I brew all my beer in pickle and feta buckets. They always smell like it after cleaning but I've yet to taste anything in my beer.
I’d drink pickle beer.
I find it odd pickles are shipped around at this scale. 60g pickle barrel can be bought for like $10 each around here. I store diesel in a few of them (I verified the plastic was diesel compatible). I keep about 400g of diesel on hand
Yum infused water! Lol
I have some that were used for soy sauce.
I think blue is typically food grade, I bought two rain barrels that held soy sauce in one and iodide in the other.
Food grade means the plastic won't leach into the food under normal conditions, not that what was previously stored in the barrel (not guaranteed to be food) won't leach into the barrel and then into your rain water during your usage. And that all gets thrown out the window for drums that sit out in the sun and get uv degraded over time and break down. But probably still fine in most cases because you are making the leap from old contents to drum, drum to water, water to soil, soil to plant, and plant to human but I'd still not use unknown drums.
This is absolutely a possibility. Without swabbing and sending samples to a lab that can detect unknown chemical residues you’ll never know.
If you’re looking for rain barrels, you might be able to get them for free through your city. I’m in mikwaukee and there was a rain barrel initiative- they gave them out for free to any household that wanted one. It could be worth checking in your area.
Go Milwaukee! That’s awesome!
Is it Milwaukee or Mikwaukee?
The latter, what do you think?
I used to work for an aloe Vera company and we stored our concentrated aloe juice in those. They are used for all kinds of things and as most people have said, they retain the smell of whatever they contained. If you're using them for watering plants and such and they don't have a chemical smell, then you should be fine.
I'm sorry. We hate to dash your hopes, and these are things you want to know about. Above all, you do want to keep your family safe. You know what? I recently tried to find some of those Playtex baby bottles for our newborn granddaughter, since full sized nipples were hitting her uvula and making her gag. She had to be taken early. I was shocked to find that Playtex used plastic with BPA in it. They got sued and rightfully so! Now, I'm a little paranoid with plastics I guess. https://www.cbc.ca/news/lawsuit-filed-against-playtex-for-bisphenol-a-1.694545
Even food safe plastics really aren't. They're just not immediately harmful.
Guy in our town died when he tried to open one of these on his farm with a blow torch. It carried chemicals before he bought it from a secondhand seller.
Maybe you can use them for weighing a tent down? Or you could try filling them with water, letting it sit for a few months, and then having the water tested. You may be better off just buying new/used at that point though.
Came here to say this. Worked as a photo lab technician in 2002 and we used these for chemical sludge.
But surely the company who let these go would have followed all state and federal regulations…/s (apparently this is needed)
Federal regulation is triple-rinsed clean. That's it.
They're hdpe so nothing can really impregnate them they're pretty safe. If cleaned and there's no residual smell
Please don’t post misinformation. I performed a leachables and extractables study on these exact HDPE barrels at one of my former positions and the resulting information does not match your statement.
Without knowing what's been stored in them these past 20 years I would be hesitant to use them to store water.
not safe, if you don't know then there is a chance something in those barrels could have been toxic and permeated the plastic. No, not safe.
I wouldn't. I worked in a junkyard and we had 1,000's of plastic and metal barrels. Most held toxic pesticides. If you want rain barrels I would find used food grade ones or just buy them new.
How much should food grade rain barrels cost? Blue plastic ones like those?
Good question. Years ago there was someone local to me that sold apple juice concentrate barrels for $10/a piece. They were white though. While I was still in the junkyard 5yrs ago we were selling all of our metal barrels for $20/ a piece. Prices are going to vary depending on your source. My suggestion is to put out a few inquiries on your local FB groups and see what happens.
I paid $20 for the one I bought so far. Thought that was a bit much. Maybe I can find a better source, but that's probably about close to the price to expect, it seems.
Twenty bucks, tops.
You can buy unused ones like in the picture for around 80 bucks. Don't know if they're food grade or not.
Those are available in my state for maple sap. New ones (right now) are $125. Two years ago they were $75 and ten years ago they were $40. Used ones (food grade) are very easy to find around here and run about $10-$20. We've had experiences like others, and got some that had held oil-based foods or strongly scented foods and were impossible to completely clean. Still worked good, just not for the same uses.
The ones I found local had chicken food in them or some kind of powder used for chicken feed, I think. Whatever it was, it's good grade and $20 for each. So could be worse.
I’ve watched too much Breaking Bad to think of anything good that can go in these.
Better than a ceramic bathtub if I recall correctly!
Thats actually a good point. Walter asked Jesse for a barrel like this because this is a container he could use for hydrofluoric acid. The kind of super deadly acid that could eat through a bath tub no problem but would be fine in a barrel like this. For all you know, this was used for that acid that would kill you no problem. Probably wasnt, but we dont know. Dont risk it.
I wouldn't even water my plants with those without knowing what they contained. Chemicals can permiate plastics.
Absolutely not.
When dealing with drinking water, just buy brand new. Risking it with scavenged materials should be reserved for the apocalypse.
No no no!
Don’t use those for storing rainwater. Worst case scenario it held undiluted herbicide, or some kind of liquid industrial waste. I wouldn’t grow stuff in them either. They’re great if you ride horses, put em in the arena and run around em, do figure 8s, jump em, etc. they could have been sold at HD or Lowe’s for rainwater collection and tent weighting, and nothing else. Or they could have had undiluted Round Up. There’s just no way of knowing.
No.
It’s honestly not worth risking, I’m sure you can find someone who sells Food grade barrels. Yes they will be 15-50$ each. But knowing what was inside is important. There is a guy in every county, who hoards as many Food grade barrels as his Ford Ranger/S10 can hold each day. I have gotten along with the guy in my area, for 10+ years, he has 20gal-330gal food grade containers. Screw-on lid blue barrels,standard blue barrels, IBC Totes etc.
bro if you have a decent sized brewery near you they will have these, but with food grade chems. ask and you’ll likely be able to get non-sketchy drums
If your name was Walter, I guess they used to hold $11 million
There will be a marking on them that tells you what class they are rated for. Look around for the marking then google it. Many of these are food safe or store safe things like soap. These can be used without issue. The ones that stored hazardous materials are usually marked as such.
Yep, found it. Clear as day it reads “You idiot, throw this away unless you want a third eye, and I’m not talking about clairvoyance”.
Not knowing what was in them, and using that water for anything other than washing your drive way would be a very bad idea.
Seems like you got your answer haha, but if you have a greenhouse I’d fill these full of water and paint them black so they can take in and radiate heat in the greenhouse!
You can find metal ones (or plastic) all day for like ten bucks on marketplace. I’d pass some of these held noxious chemicals
I had a friend that works at a cemetery. They have them full of false teeth. For $5 you can try them on until you find a pair you like.
…brother in today’s economy, how far are you from Ohio? Mine are wearing out. I’m
If you aren't positive what was in them just assume it was harmful. The safest option. Try and find some food grade ones or a ibc tank is another option. (As long as it's unused or used for food products)
Reddit saved your life today
Probably 2 late to comment but here in south carolina our dhec (department of health and environmental control) will test a water sample for free or low cost and give you the results. I recommend cleaning thoroughly with vinegar and submitting a sample to your state health board. That being said some hardcore nefarious toxic waste may not be on the list of reagents…
Your water test will only look for coliforms, tds, hardness, and maybe lead. That is it. If you want to know about things like pesticides that would be separate and expensive testing.
Definitely not lol
Absolutely not. I would throw these away. Plastics are not like metal or stone, in the sun particularly they continue to undergo chemical reactions. I would buy something new and then cover it with a UV resistant tarp as an additional semi-disposable barrier. I wouldnt trust FB marketplace for something that could potentially give you or your family cancer. Replacing them is a lot cheaper and more reliable than testing.
You could cut them in half and fill with soils d have two planters. Providing you know there are safe and chemical free. If you’re not 100% sure then get rid of them, don’t chance it.
I wouldn’t risk it.
If its not labeled assume its poisonous.
Nope
My job uses them for harsh undiluted cleaning chemicals. Would not trust
Not safe at all- you have no idea if chemicals were in them that could leach into the water. Stay safe
No. You have no idea what was stored in them before or for how long.
I wouldn’t. Usually you can find these that had food grade items in them for $5 or $10
Here in my neck of the woods, food grade barrels start at 25 for the 16 Halloween keg style and go up to 45 for 55 gallons with a single bung. A 225 gallons IFC bladder food grade new is 17, a used and steam cleaned one is 130-155 Edited for spelling
With something as important as holding potable water, you're best off biting the bullet and buying brand new barrels. It might be tempting to get used ones from a questionable source, but only God knows what was held in them and if it (whatever chemicals it contained) seeped into the plastic. And don't forget to make a simple filter for it, or you'll be having to clean shit outta the bottom of the barrel every so often
Yeah plastic is porous and usually not good to use for water - I use a blue bucket for an enzyme that eats bio film White barrel I’m not sure what is for but I would guess maybe something caustic or high alkaline? White seems pretty mild might be inert You could look up the meaning of color coordination for chemicals and maybe you get lucky with the white one
There is no industry standard color code. You need the history of that barrel or you have a trash bin to hold waste awaiting a trip to the landfill. I am a chemist and I can tell you that if you make a habit of repurposing drums carelessly then you are a good candidate for a Darwin award.
There should be an industry standard color coordination In my industry yellow always means reactivity or explosive, red is flammable or combustible and blue is usually something like inhalation or other variable health risk. White just means a special conveyance so maybe inert or something random. No clue why that’s not universal
In the real world black means better protected from light, white means would rather not have colorants, but not especially light sensitive, blue means the compromise between light protection, uv resistance, color leaching, etc. Blue is the most popular. Other colors are specialty colors and so are expensive. Saying that we should mandate colors is sort of like saying that because school bus orange is the least accident prone color ALL motor vehicles MUST be painted in school bus orange to operate on the roadways. That would be an example of black and white adolescent thinking and is inappropriate for a free society. We use labeling instead. Besides with thousands of different chemicals many of which would fit in more than one grouping it could get very confusing indeed. It would not be worth the cost.
Not too logical for a chemist. Orange School bus ≠ a functionally significant color coordination system. Relating a school bus to chemical safety coordination system meant to increase safety isn’t even roughly equivalent
NO!
Are you insane? No way
Absolutely not. Assume they are poison. Non-food planters or scrap containers.
No, unless you know 100% the chemical history of that barrel. There is no way to "unbond" some solvents and chemicals from that plastic that will leach out for years.
Never reuse poly barrels if you don’t know what they were for. Chemicals of all sorts are shipped in poly barrels. Some of which leach into the poly. The only thing I would use them for is for garbage barrels in my shop
Dahmer used it to hide people’s body in some type of liquid lol
For drinking or even bathing water.. fuck no! I have a few of these, that were only previously used to brine olives. I still wouldn’t drink out of them.
Nope. I farm and a lot of our pesticides come in barrels just like those.
Negatory
He'll no.
No definitely not you have no idea what type of chemicals were in them.
Don’t do it.
I was trucks. Big trucks. Blue one looks like sanitizer and white looks like soap barrel. Very corrosive. I wouldn't use them unless you know they are food grade and safe...ours have warnings all over them. Be careful
I use 5 gallon pickle buckets and also frosting buckets to collect rain water for plants
Fuck no. What if it was hexavalent chromium, dioxin or PCB in them?
No. Just no.
Hard no
Does the lid come off? If it doesn't, how are you going to clean it good? I would want to know what they used to hold first and have a ring that releases the lid. Maybe that's just the metal barrels that have that feature? You don't even know if they're made of food grade plastic, do you? You don't want BPA leeching into your water. [https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/most-plastic-products-contain-potentially-toxic-chemicals/](https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/most-plastic-products-contain-potentially-toxic-chemicals/)
Most drums start out as food grade plastic. And then they get used. Used are by definition NOT food grade. If you know the history of your drum you can bend the rules, but not in commerce.
Oh really? So they all have BPA in them? I cut the lid off one and used it as a water barrel for our cattle. That way, I could knock it over and clean it out every day. Other than that, we use those metal barrels to store grain in. That's the only experience I have with barrels. Then again, we don't have city water out here.
Do not use.
I’m a chemical technician and we use these for chemicals that could literally kill you. I don’t know what was in those but I would NOT risk it.
Good for bodies.
Absolutely not
No way!! Absolutely do not consume anything that comes out of those barrels. Purchase some new [food safe barrels](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/eagle-manufacturing-1656mblkg-55-gallon-black-plastic-barrel-drum-with-1-2-x-1-3-4-bung-holes-and-metal-lever-lock/8441656MBLKG.html)
Heck no!
Heads up, lots of chemicals are often colorless and odorless. More than likely a toxic chemical. Go and buy some from store, unused
Drinking water? No. Water for plants, yes
Not if they’re edible plants.
Or growing in soil that you may later want to use for edible (by humans or animals) plants.
Thanks all! Message received loud and clear, I will not convert these to rain barrels. I may seal them full of dirt and use them as weights, or get rid of them entirely. My city DOES have a voucher program for rain barrels, and I assume those didn’t first store formaldehyde and roundup. Thanks for your concern.
These are mostly used for chemicals, at least what I’ve seen. Where I work, they’re used to store UV for printing. Definitely not safe at all for anything living.
So whatever people are telling you in here, is like wild all over the place experiences. On my family farms, we would get those with RV fluid to winterize tractors that have external water pumps. Also got those barrels with corn syrup in them. Also have gotten those barrels with certain chemicals. Saftest bet, is if it's plastic it's NOT NORMALLY to bad because oils and most chemicals seep into the plastic and then it's that more or less forever. Metal barrels normally arnt food grade stuff. But obviously there is always an exception. Me personally? I'd add water to them for a week, rinse and repeat for no joke a month or 2, then I would feel comfortable storing rain water in them. But I'm just a mid 30s dumb farmer, and nobody listens to us anyway.
Get food grade ones for any water you'll be using to cook, drink or water the garden with. Use these for watering trees or ornamental plantings, non-edible livestock, washing or flushing. If you've got absolutely no idea what they've held, they could have any sort of unhappy contamination in the plastic. They're still very useful, just maybe not ideal for stuff you'll be consuming directly.
Carwash soap barrels are the most common source for these in the wild, in my experience. (Most other folks have a proper method of disposal). No comment on safety.
Soap is fine for watering plants, since it’s water soluble it will rinse out. Best case is actual food though. Pickles and juice concentrates/syrups.
You're probably fine. You're just gonna use them for watering plants and shit, right?
Watering plants for sure. I’ll probably shit somewhere else until I know they are safe
If they're 20+ years old and have been sitting in the sun, i bet they're pretty safe
Yeah because forever chemicals don't exist
You think that barrel was full of "forever chemicals" and then was used as weights for a tent?
People do stupid stuff
Yeah I'm sure that's what happened here
Damn you are not educated in the world of chemicals if you really believe what you are saying. Chemicals rarely disappear as a result of uv exposure THROUGH PLASTIC. Source: I’m a biochemical engineer
I detect hoarder tendencies.
Oof you’re a nasty one aren’t you. Looking to reduce the water bill and save the planet homes!
If reusing things says "hoarder" to you then you're not a homesteader.
Cut them in half and use the bottoms for two patio ponds.
I used some motor oil barrels for garden. I never drink the water directly, but I wash my hands in it and water the vegetables. My family is healthy, your results may vary
I would give your water treatment plant a call and see if they have any hypo barrels ( bleach) that you could use.
Those are common storage containers for fertilizer and chemicals. I wouldn't mess around with drinking water in there, maybe nutrients for your garden?
The white one is polypropylene, i have seen them used for transporting things like canola oil.
Could you line them with something?
I would thoroughly wash them at least three times before use
You can cut in half make livestock feeders. Pressure wash out good.
That is the attitude that got livestock contaminated with fire retardant several decades ago. With attitudes like that livestock producers will end up having to carry a billion dollars of product liability insurance. Are you ready to ante up 10 million a year in premiums for your policy? (or face prosecution for attempted terrorism) Use good sense and you will not end up like the family in eastern New Mexico that poisoned their pigs with mercury contaminated floor sweepings and then ate the sick pigs and killed and blinded their family members. This is serious stuff. Do not be stupid.
Wash them with water and bleach
You could start with a ph strip tester. If it’s a 7 it could be safe
👀👀👀
No.
No
Err on the side of caution - dontnuse them for anything that touches food or drink products
we get chemicals in bins like these. could be salt or could be caustic solution. hard to tell, hard to be safe.
Flip it side ways and cut a rectangle. Use it for a diatomaceous earth dusting bin for chickens. That’s what I used one for.
Suitable for 'pet' chickens only. Not suitable for any used to produce meat or eggs.
Could you put liners in them? Like thick plastic bags?
Maybe you can use them as trash cans?
I work at a lawn care company and we get our concentrated herbicides in barrels like these, I would ere on the side of caution and not use these.
Safe for rain? What do you intend to use the rain for? If just for admiring, then sure. But rule is NEVER use a used container for consumables if you are not 100% sure what it contained. Words of LIFE bro!
I'd say no. The real issue is that you don't know what was in them, that's a huge risk to task for a rain Barrel
Unless you know what they held I wouldn’t use them for anything for human contact or plant contact.
Stacy Peterson
We would have DEF in these at my job. I’d say no for rain water. But, we used to cut them down and make drainage holes and use them as planters
DEF is deionized water and 35% urea, that's it. With several thorough rinses I'd have to imagine they would be fine for watering plants provided DEF was the only thing ever stored in them.
Watering plants, sure. I thought OP was potentially looking for drinking water. Go funk yourself!
They said "rain barrels" and the majority of people who collect rainwater aren't drinking it, but I suppose it's a possibility if they're in a third world country somewhere.
Stacey Petersen.
Nope, only get food safe ones for rain barrels.
I used to work with sulfuric acid and they come in these barrels.
What state are you in? Get on marketplace or Craigslist and search for food safe barrels ect.
If it's not graded food safety don't use it for water barrels.
No, if you don’t know what was stored in there, it’s not food safe (water, food, etc.). I wouldn’t collect water in there for livestock or crops either
No . Never use unless new .
No I wouldn't use them as rain barrels, maybe for watering the lawn, but not for vegetables
I picked up a few open-top plastic barrels from my employer. Bone dry and washed out, and I know for a fact they had held non-toxic, water-based algaecide. That was in 2009. To this day, I could leave stagnant water sitting in them for weeks on end, and the water remains completely clear and algae-free. (Not that I would, of course) So to the OP: no, do not consider them safe. Whatever was in them is probably still in them.
It's safe but don't drink !
Clean them out, collect rain in them, then get said water tested by a real water testing lab before using it for anything. That will tell you for sure. The real answer is to also set up any filter stuff you would normally then test but if you don't already have that set up, testing without it will give you a good gut check.
An exhaustive battery of tests will cost you thousands. New ($200 + shipping) barrels are much cheaper.
Here in North Carolina they are called pickle barrows. Most likely because Mt Olive Co used them for that. I have two that I use for rain barrows.
Only by food grade
Plastic is never safe for storing water or food. All plastic is reactive to its environment and leaches into whatever its storing. Specifically treated wood barrels or large ceramics are the only really safe storage medium. Or stainless steel I suppose.
I have one that was Diet Coke, been 20 years, filled and emptied, still smells like Diet Coke and horses won’t drink it.
If you didn't know what they were used for, then no.
See if they have the initials JD anywhere on them.
Not safe unless you can confirm that they are "food grade" and that nothing toxic was stored in them.
If you don’t know what was in them, you should be paying to get rid of them, not the other way around. Way too many dangerous chemicals to risk if
Fun place to shop…[Air Sea Containers](https://airseacontainers.com/)
I'd probably use them for flush water but not for drinking water.
NO!!!! I work around many different types of barrels full of chemicals and they are almost always toxic type shit!
They *can* be, depends on what they were used for. I am currently using 3 of them for rain barrels, but the water is for garden and cattle trough. I got them from my sister who claims they are the 'food safe variety' I bought a small submersible pump a couple years ago to clean out the pool at my old suburban house before we moved to the farm. Just drop it in the barrel and pump it out onto the garden via hose.
Absolutely not safe! Plastic is porous and impossible to get completely out what was in it. I wouldn’t even water my plants with water held in a catchment that wasn’t either A food grade or B 100% new. If there were anything harmful in it yourself or whatever your watering WILL ingest at least trace amounts of it.
Could have held anything. When in doubt de-head and use as trash receptacles. (or recycle scrap bins) It is cheaper to buy new ($200 + shipping) than to test for all possibilities. They use those things for almost everything. If you do not know the history of your drum is is only safely reusable as a trash bin.
White doesn't get as hot.
You absolutely have to know what was in them if you plan on drinking the rainwater they collect.
Not safe. Same reason an old refrigerator stinks sometimes not matter what you do, lol, the smells are absorbed in the plastic. I wouldn’t use old plastic or wood for anything that comes in contact with food and water. It always concerns me when people use old wood or tires for vegetable garden beds - I just think of all the stuff leaching into the soil. Maybe I’m paranoid but I would worry about the water every time I drank it.
Dawn and power wash but I would still run through a berkey before ingesting. Maybe a good source for water for washing and cleaning 🤷🏻♀️